Similar species

Physical description

Click here for a physical description

Rufous Songlarks are medium-sized Australian grassland larks. Their highly
crypticplumage is
dimorphic,
i.e. males and females are slightly different.
Both males and females have a brown, slightly scalloped crown
and back. The throat and eyebrows are light brownish-grey.
Each eyes is surrounded by a brown eye-stripe. The breast
is lightly scalloped brownish, the belly and vent are
creamy to light-brown. The wings are dark-brown, with lighter
brown edges. The rump is rufous; the tail is dark-grey with
rufous outer edges.
During the breeding season male Rufous Songlarks have a black
Females have a light-brown bill and are smaller than male Rufous
Songlarks.
The eyes of both sexes have dark irises.
The legs and feet of both sexes are greyish-pink.

Twitcher's tip

Both sexes of Rufous Songlarks have a rufous vent, which distinguishes
them from Brown Songlarks.
Apart from that they are also smaller.

Taxonomy, classification

Rufous Songlarks are endemic to Australia. They can be found
basically anywhere on the Australian continent, except the
tip of Cape York peninsula. They only rarely venture into the
major sandy deserts of western WA. They breed in the
south-eastern and western parts of the continent and extend
their range northwards in winter. During the breeding season
they are found in the western third of WA, from the south-western
corner to the catchments of the Gascoyne River and the
Yannarie River. In the South-East the breeding range extends
from south-eastern SA (up to Coober Pedy as the north-western
delimiter), all through VIC and NSW plus south-eastern QLD
(from about Innamincka, just across the border in SA, to
about the Whitsundays.

Frontal view of a fledgling Rufous Songlark recovering in a tree
after a cat attack
[Eulah Creek, NSW, September 2014]

Lateral view of a fledgling Rufous Songlark recovering in a tree
after a cat attack
[Eulah Creek, NSW, September 2014]

Breeding information

Breeding season: Aug - Feb

Eggs: 3 - 4

Incubation period: 11 days

Fledging age: ca. 12-13? days

Note that Rufous Songlarks have a very short incubation period.

Nest building: Female

Incubation: Female

Dependent care: Female

While the male marks his territory, the female takes on the full
load of caring for the offspring, from start to finish.

Nest

"bungobittah", "malunna"
= Nest [Aboriginal]

Type: Basket

Material: Grass

Height above ground: N/A

Rufous Songlarks are ground-nesting birds.

The nest itself is not shown here, because we would have caused
a serious upheaval by entering the area shown in the photos below.

Somewhere under this African Boxthorn or in the wild growth next
to it, all of which are located under a eucalypt tree, there is
a Rufous Songlark nest; we did not try to find the nest itself
[Narrabri, NSW, October 2013]

Male Rufous Songlark marking its territory, singing right next
to the undergrowth with the nest and the female
[Narrabri, NSW, October 2013]

Female Rufous Songlark coming out of the undergrowth to have a quick
look at what is going on outside, before vanishing again
[Narrabri, NSW, October 2013]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial

Mobility: Migratory

Elementary unit: Pair

The males are prolific singers, either while perched as shown in a
photo below or in flight. The display flight is slow, while chirping
with curved back. They move around various conspicuous places to
mark the boundaries of their territory.

Rufous Songlarks are ground-nesting birds. As such they need tall
grass and/or
messy undergrowth for nesting. In 2009 we slashed our
paddock in
winter and removed messy undergrowth. Since then we have not seen
Rufous Songlarks on our property (although we do leave tall
grass standing
on parts of the property at a distance of 200 m from the house).
This may relate to the fact that we regularly observe feral cats
in the area.

A Rufous Songlark was spotted by us at Eulah Creek,
20 km East of Narrabri, in August 2008, i.e. at the end of winter,
when the nights still brought regular frost. It is not clear whether
they had left for the winter (which was mild overall) or had
decided to stay, like other normally migratory birds. The
day after major rainfall, with associated northerly ahead
of the front, the first territorial calls started ringing
around the property at the beginning of September 2008. As a
contrast, territorial calls of a Rufous Songlark could be heard
around our place in the 2010/11 season starting in December.

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our
contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species
please refer to a field guide.

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Last updated: 5 June 2015.